5/25/2004

Danielle Brian, the executive director of Project On Government Oversight, sites the Bush administration's close ties with the oil industry and points out that these companies could well afford to pay for their own security.

(CBS) It's no secret that when it comes to the mounting cost of security for all high-risk terrorist targets, like nuclear power plants and railroads, there simply isn't enough Homeland Security money to go around.

But, as CBS News Correspondent Mika Brzezinski reports, precious taxpayer dollars are quietly going to pay for security at some of the richest corporations in the world. Major oil companies have received $65 million to buy cameras, fencing, and communications equipment.

'That makes no sense to me at all,' says Bill Millar, President of the American Public Transportation Association.

Millar asks why these profitable private companies are receiving scarce taxpayer dollars while publicly funded entities like the transit system, with Americans riding 32 million times a day, left under-funded and under-protected.

'Clearly, public transit is being short changed and security is not as strong as it could be,' says Millar.

'We don't have unlimited resources,' says Danielle Brian, the executive director of Project On Government Oversight. Brian cites the Bush administration's close ties with the oil industry and points out that these companies could well afford to pay for their own security.

'They're taking absolute advantage of the situation and the government is letting them get away with it,' said Brian.